Founding Engineer

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in United States, +1 more country.

📋 Description

• Collaborate closely with the CTO

• Establish architecture and influence product direction

• Manage systems comprehensively from design to implementation, monitoring, and iteration

• Engage directly with customers

• Develop internal AI workflows to enhance engineering efficiency

• Contribute to shaping engineering practices at Tightknit

• Create Tightknit’s integration platform that connects applications for customer engagement

• Work on embedding and retrieval architecture that supports the intelligence layer and unified semantic and keyword search

• Develop the AI agent for community programming

• Release features and deploy production code

• Take ownership of scoped, impactful projects from start to finish

• Suggest enhancements to engineering systems, AI workflows, APIs, and overall performance

• Lead initiatives that span across integrations, refactoring, reliability enhancements, and new surface areas

• Have direct conversations with customers

• Make architectural choices that positively influence Tightknit’s trajectory

• Take part in a compensated SuperDay that includes mock tasks reflective of the day-to-day responsibilities

• Meet prospective team members and founders during the SuperDay

⛳️ Requirements

• A minimum of 5+ years of experience as a full-time full-stack engineer

• Strong foundation in backend engineering principles

• Experience in designing production systems

• Quick learner of the specified technologies

• Proficient in communicating with customers, synthesizing their requests, and creating thoughtful, detailed products

• Keen eye for differentiating between good and poor user experiences

• Capability to effectively utilize AI and digital employees to enhance individual and team productivity

• Previous experience at an early-stage startup or direct collaboration with founders is highly preferred

• Experience in delivering enterprise products is a plus

• Familiarity with JavaScript/TypeScript, React, Next.js, TanStack, Node.js, and Tailwind

• Knowledge of Cloudflare Workers, KV, Durable Objects, Workflows, and Queues, as well as Vercel

• Familiarity with PostgreSQL, Drizzle, and Supabase

• Understanding of the Slack platform, OpenAPI APIs, and event-driven architectures

• Familiarity with tools such as GitHub, Linear, Slack, OpenAI, Claude, Cursor, Antigravity, Notion, PostHog, Mintlify, Canva, and Sentry

• Ability to work independently with a high degree of accountability

• Capacity to articulate the value and impact of community; membership in community groups is a significant advantage

• Must sign an NDA/CLA as part of the SuperDay arrangement

• Must complete the paid SuperDay compatibility assessment

🏝️ Benefits

• Competitive salary and equity package

• 10-year exercise window for stock options

• Unlimited paid time off (PTO)

• Minimum of 8 weeks of fully paid parental leave

• Generous budget for equipment, software, and ergonomic needs

• $100/month budget for community membership and educational purposes

• Higher-value professional development opportunities, such as conferences, covered with manager approval

• Access to a co-working space for employees based in SF or NYC

• For US-based employees: comprehensive health insurance for the employee and dependents, with Tightknit covering 100% of premiums

• For employees in other countries: high-quality supplemental health insurance for the employee and dependents, fully funded by Tightknit

• Paid SuperDay work trial at a flat rate of $500 USD

• $250 USD fee in the rare event that Tightknit cancels a scheduled SuperDay after filling the role with another candidate

• Option to contribute SuperDay payment to an agreed-upon charity